Copyright: Tom Hayward - BBC
In the act of murder there is a weapon, a crime scene and a body - all vital evidence in the hunt for the killer. In this series surgeon and writer Gabriel Weston investigates the world of the forensic scientist and the murders they’ve helped to solve. She explores the cases that proved pivotal to the advancement of forensic science and she reveals the cutting edge technology that’s keeping the detective one step ahead of the criminal. Today, from just a few cells, the face of a suspect can be constructed – a process called molecular photo fitting and we find out how a tiny sample of soil can pinpoint where a murder took place.

The first episode of Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story airs on BBC Four on Thursday 18th June 2015 at 9.00pm.. Full broadcast details and watch again links can be found on bbc.co.uk

Chemistry is of enormous importance in everyday life: almost everything that exists, and all that we see, make and eat is composed of molecules. The unravelling of molecular structure is a key activity of chemists. In these three video tracks, Dr Mike Bullivant looks briefly at three of the spectroscopic techniques that are used to determine the structure of chemical compounds - infrared spectroscopy, proton (1H) and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. This material is taken from The Open University course S205 The molecular world.

This free course, Test kits for water analysis, steps outside the laboratory to look at some examples of analytical procedures being carried out in the field using commercial test kits. These quick tests provide results on-site, extending the options available to analysts. The methods used are chemical or microbiological in nature, made portable by microelectronics.

Expand your knowledge - try a free OpenLearn course

This free course, Forensic science and fingerprints, covers how science can make fingerprints easier to study, how they are used in court and some of the questions about the extent to which fingerprint identification is sound and scientific. Students will learn the principles used in classifying and matching fingerprints (often called marks).

Study with The Open University

We live in a society that depends on science, but how many of us really understand the science behind the important issues that feature in the news? Whether you are keen to study a specific area of science or are not yet sure whether your interest lies – say – in physics or biology, then this degree is for you. It starts with a wide-ranging introduction to highly topical areas of modern science, and then offers the chance to specialise as you develop your interests. Pathways include biology; chemistry; Earth sciences; environmental sciences; physics; and astronomy and planetary science. Flexible, accessible study arrangements mean you can do all the practical work near where you live or online in your own home, but taking part in laboratory and field work at specific locations may be an option for some pathways.

Why does crime occur? What makes people do harm to others? The BSc (Honours) Criminology and Psychological Studies explores a range of fascinating issues to do with crime, criminal justice and psychology – including antisocial behaviour, surveillance, security, social justice, social welfare and environmental degradation. You’ll gain a thorough understanding of a range of broader psychological and criminological theories and topics, such as how the mind works and the relationship between social welfare and crime control. As well as grasping the complex issues behind so many headlines, TV programmes and political debates, you’ll learn how to construct and analyse arguments; think critically about published work across a range of sources; understand and analyse statistical information; and apply concepts and ideas to the real world. You’ll have your own specialist, subject-based academic support as well as opportunities to join in online communities of other social sciences students for teaching, learning and peer support.

Environmental science is a vital and vibrant subject, exploring the complexities of the natural environment and our relationship with it. Our environment is fascinating – but it’s under threat from climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion. This interdisciplinary degree course combines aspects of biology, geography, chemistry, technology and social science to help you understand the whole picture. You will develop the scientific and technical knowledge and skills required to understand fundamental environmental patterns and processes, and to address local and global environmental issues. You’ll also investigate the problems we face in understanding our environment and in managing it sustainably, as well as developing your scientific, interpretive and creative thinking skills. This qualification requires fieldwork including compulsory residential school activities in the UK.

Episode guide

Traces Of Guilt

Copyright: Alastair McCormick - BBC
Gabriel Weston investigates blood spatter
The killer will always leave something at the scene of the crime - hair, fibres or just as easily they will take something away with them such as soil on their shoes. In episode two of Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story we examine four cases all concerned with the interpretation of evidence. From soil analysis and the case of Margareta Filbert in 1908 to fibre analysis and the brutal murder of Nancy Titterton in 1936 to blood splatter analysis with Dr Sam Sheppard and the murder of his wife in 1954 and finally to the hanging of the Stratton brothers 1905 – the first people to be tried and convicted of murder based largely on the evidence of a new-fangled science called fingerprints.

This episode guide is for the OU/BBC series Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story. To find out more about the programmes and forensics go to the main series page.

Academic Insight

by Martin Bootman

Evidence left at a crime scene is crucial in the identification of a murderer. This episode explores the principle that a person entering a crime scene will leave something distinguishing behind, and also take something from the location with them. Sometimes, the crucial evidence of being at a crime scene is unwittingly accumulated by the murderer. On other occasions, objects that can be matched to a person are left behind. However, evidence does not necessarily have to be material objects. Distinguishing marks such as fingerprints, or evidence of personal traits such as left- or right-handedness, might help to establish guilt or innocence. In this episode, you will see how analysis of different types of evidence has been used in forensic science. In addition, this episode illustrates that science can provide absolute conclusions, but also that science is sometimes not definitive. Indeed, there are occasions when science only offers probabilities as to how events occurred, and conclusions are reached through human interpretation of data.

A key technique explored in this Episode is fingerprint analysis. You can learn more about this technique by following this short course:

This free course, Forensic science and fingerprints, covers how science can make fingerprints easier to study, how they are used in court and some of the questions about the extent to which fingerprint identification is sound and scientific. Students will learn the principles used in classifying and matching fingerprints (often called marks).

Digital evidence features in just about every part of our personal and business lives. Legal and business decisions hinge on having timely data about what people have actually done. This free course, Digital forensics, is an introduction to computer forensics and investigation, and provides a taster in understanding how to conduct investigations to correctly gather, analyse and present digital evidence to both business and legal audiences. It also outlines the tools to locate and analyse digital evidence on a variety of devices, how to keep up to date with changing technologies, and laws and regulations in digital forensics.

Digital evidence features in just about every part of our personal and business lives. Legal and business decisions hinge on having timely data about what people have actually done. This online module will help you understand how to conduct investigations to correctly gather, analyse and present digital evidence to both business and legal audiences. You will also learn how to find tools to locate and analyse digital evidence on a variety of devices, including mobile phones, and how to keep up to date with changing technologies, laws and regulations in digital forensics.

This key introductory module introduces the science of human health and is structured around eight globally important health topics, ranging from nutrition and infectious diseases to pain and breast cancer screening. Each topic integrates key concepts in the biological, chemical and physical sciences with psychology and health statistics to illuminate the causes of disease and disability and the consequence for individuals and populations. You will also develop the skills you need for further study of the health sciences, including evaluating evidence; handling numbers; presenting data; writing skills; and using information technology.

This free course, Forensic science and fingerprints, covers how science can make fingerprints easier to study, how they are used in court and some of the questions about the extent to which fingerprint identification is sound and scientific. Students will learn the principles used in classifying and matching fingerprints (often called marks).

How do we know what people read in the past, and how they read it? This free course, History of reading tutorial 1: Finding evidence of reading in the past, is the first in a series of tutorials designed to help users of the UK Reading Experience Database (UK RED) search, browse and use the resource, and explores the types of evidence historians have uncovered about the history of reading. Tutorial 2 (Red_2) and Tutorial 3 (Red_3) look at how this evidence can be used to tell us about the reception of a literary text and to demonstrate the impact of a writers reading on their literary output. UK RED is a resource built and maintained at The Open University.

Comments and ratings

Tags, Ratings and Social Bookmarking

Ratings

Ratings

Share

We invite you to discuss this subject, but remember this is a public forum.Please be polite, and avoid your passions turning into
contempt for others. We may delete posts that are rude or aggressive; or edit posts containing contact details or links to other websites.

Feeds

If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.